Finland’s outgoing foreign affairs minister, Pekka Haavisto (Green), announced on Thursday that he is running as a candidate in next year’s presidential election. Haavisto has run for the office twice before, in 2012 and 2018, both times against current President Sauli Niinistö. Haavisto came in second in both of thoseContinue Reading
Latvia has elected a new president – making history the first openly gay head of state in Europe. The country’s parliament elected Edgars Rinkēvičs to be its next president, Reuters reported prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš saying. Rinkēvičs has spent a long time in Latvian politics, serving as the country’s ministerContinue Reading
The European Peace Facility (EPF) was established in 2021 by the European Union because of the war in Ukraine in order to maintain peace and international stability. In fact, the fund actively finances arms transfers from EU countries to Ukraine and other regions of the world. The budget of theContinue Reading
Estonia’s largest defense training exercise Spring Storm (Kevadtorm) started on Monday and will last until May 26. Approximately, 14,000 personnel will take part. Army, Air Force, Navy and Defense League units, conscripts and reservists take part in the annual exercise, totaling around 9,000 personnel. Around half are reservists. The restContinue Reading
Norway took over the Arctic Council’s rotating presidency from Russia on Thursday amid concerns that the work of the eight-country intergovernmental body on protecting the sensitive environment is at risk because of suspension of cooperation with Moscow over the war in Ukraine. In March 2022, seven Western members of theContinue Reading
Pål Jonson said Sweden has now focused its efforts on training assistance and maintenance of weapons that have already been transferred to Ukraine. “We don’t have a surplus of (Gripen) aircraft that we could send to Ukraine right now,” Jonson said. Earlier Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed confidence that UkraineContinue Reading
In a Stalinist skyscraper which dominates the skyline of Latvia’s capital, dozens of elderly Russians wait to take a basic Latvian language test as a proof of loyalty to a country where they have lived for decades. Clutching red Russian passports, the participants, mostly women, read their notes for lastContinue Reading
The Polish government has approved draft legislation that would allow the military to sink an enemy ship targeting a key gas pipeline from Norway via the Baltic Sea following NATO’s warning that Russia might sabotage undersea energy infrastructure. In “exceptional situations”, and when other options had been exhausted, the militaryContinue Reading
Denmark has signed a 5-year agreement with Ukraine to help the war-torn country rebuild destroyed wind capacity and strengthen its independence from Russia on energy, the Danish Climate Ministry said on Tuesday. “The new 5-year collaboration will contribute to Ukraine being able to further expand its electricity supply with windContinue Reading
Widespread criticism of rising taxes is understandable, but no one has offered up any good alternatives yet, said Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) on Tuesday. Kallas said the government knew there would be fierce criticism of the move. “This outrage is completely understandable. When I realized that we had toContinue Reading